Apparatus for flat loading of vehicle frames



Dec. 8, 1959 w. P. KOTH ET AL APPARATUS FOR FLAT LOADING OF VEHICLE FRAMES 3 SheecsSheet l Filed March 18, 1955 n 1 w M N 1 A T Am .5 w A W m L PM r w mw MN INVENTORS. Wz'ZZzam P. Kath y Frank 'lfJaskawzak ATTORNEYS Dec. 8, 1959 Filed March 18, 1955 W. P. KOTH ET AL APPARATUS FOR FLAT LOADING OF VEHICLE FRAMES 5 Shee its-Sheet 2 FIG. 3.

William JNVENTORS. P. K0 13h BY Fz'ank IJClSKOtUiCLk ATTORNEYS.

Dec. 8, 195? w. P. KOTH ET AL 2,935,991

APPARATUS FOR FLAT LOADING OF VEHICLE FRAMES Filed March 18, 1955 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 lhllmh I NVENTORS WILLIAM P. KoTH FRANK T. JASKOWIAK Odlfornaqs United tates atent 2,915,991 APPARATUS FOR FLAT LOADING OF VEHICLE FRAMES William P. Koth and Frank T. Jaslrowialr, Milwaukee, Wis., assignors to A. 0. Smith Corporation, Milwaukee, Wis., a corporation of New York Application March 18, 1955, Serial No. 495,222 3 Claims. (Cl. 105-367) This invention relates to loading of vehicle frames, and more particularly to horizontal loading of vehicle frames on a flatcar or the like for shipment.

Heretofore, no adequate means has been devised to provide for the shipment of vehicle frames in horizontal stacks. The methods attempted have been ineffective in preventing damage to the frames due to shifting of the frames in transit. In addition, the frames at the bottom of the stack were often bent out of shape, due to the weight of the frames above them and thevdownward tensioning of the holddown member.

For these reasons, the frame manufacturing industry has not accepted flat, or horizontal loading of frames, but has instead utilized the much more inefiicient vertical stacking methods. The disadvantages of vertical stacking have been many. The standard gondola-type railway car can accommodate only about 90 vertically stacked frames. In addition, each frame must be loaded and unloaded separately, which results in a great loss of time. Finally, unless extreme precautions are taken, sudden starts or stops of the flatcar tend to cause substantial shifting of the frames, with resultant damage thereto.

The present invention overcomes all of the above difficulties by providing an improved and novel means for loading automobile or similar frames in a horizontal stacked position. Both longitudinal and transverse shifting are substantially eliminated and the weight of the frames is transferred to the flatcar in a manner to prevent damage to the bottom frames.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the best mode presently contemplated by the inventor for carrying out the invention.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a railway fiatcar showing the frames stacked in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of Figure 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical section with parts broken away and taken through a stack of frames;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged transverse fragmentary vertical section taken on line 44 of Figure 1;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged transverse fragmentary vertical section with parts broken away and showing a second embodiment of the structure; and

Fig. 6 is a top plan View of a spacing member with parts broken away and sectioned.

The drawings illustrate an apparatus for securing a plurality of vehicle frames 1 in a vertical stack on a base member, such as a railway car 2 or the like.

The vehicle frames 1 are of conventional construction and include a pair of generally parallel, spaced side rails 3. Each of the side rails has a generally channel-shaped cross section having horizontal upper and lower flanges or walls joined by a vertical web and with the open side of the channel facing inwardly of the frame. The invention would work equally well with box-type side bars. To conform to the wheel supporting structure of the vehicle, each of the side rails 3 is provided with a pair of generally curved, offset or kicked-up portions 4. The side rails 3 are connected together by a motor mount 5 and an end support 6 to provide an integral frame structure.

lie

As shown in the drawings, the railway car 2 supports a series of stacks of vertically superimposed spaced frames 1 which are disposed in an inverted position with respect to the position that the frames will normally assume in the vehicle. In actual practice, the frames need not be inverted, although this is the preferred position.

Each of the stacks of frames 1' is supported on car 2 by a plurality of box-shaped saddles 7 which are secured to the upper surface of the car. Each side rail 3 of the lowermost frame in the stack rests on a pair of saddles 7 which are disposed adjacent the offset 4 of the side rail. The upper surface 8 of each saddle 7 is shaped in conformity to the curvature of the portion of the offset with which it is in contact. The positioning of the .saddle 7 is such that the saddles are located longitudinally inward of the corresponding offsets 4 of the side rails so that the lowermost frame resting on the saddles will be prevented from shifting in a longitudinal direction in relation to car 2 during transit.

To vertically space and interlock adjacent frames 1 in a stack, a plurality of spacing members 9 are disposed between each pair of frames. The spacing members are positioned above the saddles 7 and serve not only to space adjacent frames but to support and transmit the weight of each frame to the saddles and hence to the railway car 2, as hereinafter described, thereby relieving the lower frames in the stack of the combined weight of the frames thereabove.

The spacing members 9 consist of a top plate 10 and a bottom plate 11 which are connected by a pair of angleshaped side plates 12 to form a box-shaped structure. a bulkhead 13, disposed parallel to plates 10 and 11 and positioned therebetween, is welded edgewise to the side plates 12.

To vertically align the spacing members 9 and transmit the load therebetween, the top plate 10, bulkhead 13, and bottom plate 11 of each spacing member 9 are provided with aligned openings and the upper end portion of a rigid pilot pin 14 is secured by welding or the like within the openings in the bulkhead 13 and bottom plate 11. Each pin 14 extends downwardly from the respective spacing member, through aligned openings in the side rail of the adjacent lower frame, and is received within the opening in the top plate 10 of the next lower spacing member 9. The length of the pins 14 is such that the lower extremity of each pin bears firmly against the upper end of the pin of the next lower spacing member 9, and supports its respective spacing member so that the member does not bear against the frame directly beneath it. Each pin 14 associated with the lowermost spacing members 9 in the stack extends through aligned openings in the lowermost frame in the stack and in the upper surface 8 of saddle 7 and bears against a bulkhead 15 which is Welded edgewise to the side members of saddle 7. Due to its construction and interrelationship with saddle 7, lowermost pin 14 takes a substantial amount of the horizontal load, due to its shear strength.

With this construction, the pins 14 are thereby in an end-to-end connecting relation and the weight of the frames in the stack is transmitted through the series or column of pins 14 to the saddle 7 and thus to the car 2.

The spacing members 9 thus not only serve to space and align the frames 1 in the stack but also function to transmit the weight of the frames directly to the car 2, rather than to the lower frames, so that distortion or other damage to the frames in the stack due to the vertical load is substantially eliminated. Each of the lower frames is relieved of the weight of all or at least some of the frames thereabove.

To lockingly and positively prevent rotation of the spacing members 9 with respect to the frames 1, a dowel 16, such as a steeple head rivet is secured within an opening in bottom plate 11 and extends downwardly therefrom. The dowel 16 is receivedwithin a suitable opening in side rail 3 of the adjacent lower frame and thereby prevents rotation of the spacing members 9 with relation to the side rail 3 of the frame.

To provide added strength and rigidity for the spacing members the bulkheads 13 are positioned closer to top plate 10 than to bottom plate 11. This construction increases the force necessary to distort the spacing member or the pins 14.

Each pair of adjacent stacks of frames 1 is held down to the car 2 by a pair of box-shaped beams 17 which are disposed transversely across the uppermost frames in the stacks. The beams 17 are vertically aligned with the spacing members 9 and saddles 7 by pins 18 which are supported loosely within aligned openings 19 in the upper and lower surfaces of the beam. Each beam 17 is loosely mounted on pins 18 by washers 20 which are disposed adjacent the upper and lower surfaces of the beam and are secured to pins 18 as by welding. The pins 18 ex tend downwardly through aligned openings in the side rails 3 of the uppermost frame in the stack and through suitable openings in top plate 10 of the uppermost spacing members 9 and bear against the upper end of pins 14. The weight of beams 17 and the force applied to the beams to tie down the frames is therefore transmitted to lower washers 2t} and hence to the column of pins and car 2 rather than to the upper frames in the stack.

As the openings 19 are of greater dimension than the pins 14, a degree of freedom of lateral movement is pro vided to facilitate the positioning ofbeams 1'7 with respect to the frames in the stack.

The beams-17 are secured to the car 2 by providing the ends of the beams with depending flanges 21 which are each secured within a clevis 22 attached to theupper end of a tie rod 23 by a bolt 24. The lower end of each tie rod 23 is provided with a turnbuckle 25, and a spring assembly 26 connects the lower end of the turnbuckle to the car 2. By tightening turnbuckles 25, the tie rods 23 exert a downward force on beams 17 which tends to hold down the stack of frames. The spring assembly 26 serves to resiliently urge each tie rod 23 and beam 17 downwardly so that pins 18 transmit the tension of the holddown member through each column of pins instead of through the frames.

Additional tie rods, similar to tie rods 23, may beprovided between adjacent stacks of frames and secured to the central portion of the beams 17. It is also contemplated that a pair of beams 17 and tie rods 23 can be utilized in holding down only one stack of frames rather than adjacent stacks of frames.

A modified form of the invention is shown in Fig. 5. In this embodiment a spacing member 27, similar in structure to spacing members 9 of the first embodiment, is disposed on the upper surface 8 of each saddle 7. The pin 14 associated with the spacing member 27 extends downwardly through aligned openings in the upper surface 8 of saddle 7 and bulkhead 15. As the spacing member 27 bears upon saddle 7, the weight of the stack of frames 1 is transmitted through the columns of pins 14 and the spacing members 27 to thesaddles 7.

The beams 17 and tie rods 23 employed in the embodiment shown in Fig. are identical in structure to those of the first embodiment.

The invention provides an efficient means for flat loading of frames. Since. the weight of at least some of the upper frames in a stack. is transmitted directly to the floor of the fiatcar through pins 14 and the downward tension produced by the hold-down member is. likewise transmitted through the columns of pins, distortion or other'damage to the lower frames'due to vertical load is substantially reduced. The interlocking features of the spacing members 9 and pins 14 together with the contour of the saddles 7, prevents either longitudinal or transverse shifting of the frames or stacks during transit.

In addition, the described features allow the shipment of approximately 50% more frames per car than was heretofore possible. Higher stacking of frames can be done with relative safety, and eitire or partial stacks of frames can be loaded and unloaded by fork-lift trucks, resulting in substantial savings of time and labor.

Various modes of carrying out the invention are contemplated as being within the scope of the following claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which is regarded as the invention.

We claim: a a

1 In combination with an apparatus for loading hori zontally disposed vehicle frames in vertical stacks above, the floor of a flatcar or the'like for shipment, combined means to interlock the frames ineach stack and to. trans: mit the weight of the frames to the fioor of the flatcar and thus relieve each frame of the weight of the frames above it, said means comprising at least one vertical series of frame spacing members disposed between adjacent frames in the stack, each of said members having a generally box-shaped structure with vertically aligned openings provided in the top and bottom walls thereof, a bulkhead secured within each spacing member and having any opening therein in vertical alignment with said first-named openings, and a pin secured within the aligned openings in said bulkhead and said bottom wall of each spacing member and extending downwardly from said bottom wall through the adjacent lower frame and through the opening in the top wall of the next lower spacing member of said series and into endwise engagement with the upper end of the pin associated with said next lower spacing member.

2. A member for use in vertically stacking a plurality of articles above a base, said member comprising a generally box-shaped article spacer portion having vertically aligned openings disposed in the top and bottom walls thereof, a bulkhead secured within said member. and having an opening therein in vertical alignment with the said first-named openings, and a rigid pin secured adjacent one end within the opening in said bulkhead and passing through one of the openings in said spacer portion and secured therein, the other end of the pin being adapted to pass through an adjacent article and through an opening in the spacer of the next adjacent member and to engage the end of the pin secured to said last-named spacer.

3. A spacer for use in stacking a plurality of articles, comprising, a generally box-shaped spacer portion'having aligned openings disposed in the top and bottom 1 walls thereof, a bulkhead secured Within said spacer portion and having an opening therein in alignment with the said first-named openings, and a rigid connector secured adjacent one end within the opening in said bulkhead. and passing through one of the openings in said spacer and secured therein, the connector being long enough so that the other end thereof can pass through an adjacent article and through an opening in the next adjacent spacer and into engagement with the inner end of the connector secured to said next adjacent spacer.

References Cited in the file of this patent I 

